Latest / Mark and Pete / Starmer: Stifled or Stuffed?
Transcript
- 0:04Starmer stifled or stuffed? Welcome to Mark and Pete, the
- 0:10show where we look at the news and shake our heads slowly in
- 0:15despair. Yes, this is Mark and Pete, 2
- 0:17blokes with half an opinion. Now here's our first thought.
- 0:21Political storm The storm over Starmer is brewing.
- 0:25Misfortune is starting to flood. The political sharks are
- 0:29circling and they sense the smell of blood.
- 0:34Yes, it's been yet again, another bad week for Sir Keir
- 0:38Starmer. Well, we've already had more
- 0:40revelations over Mandleson documents.
- 0:43At the same time, we've also seen that Morgan McSweeney quits
- 0:47as the Prime Minister's chief of staff, Mr. Pete.
- 0:51It seems as though no matter what Sir Keir Starmer does,
- 0:55there seems to be problems on his doorstep.
- 0:58Is there a way in which he can survive as the Sharks are
- 1:02starting to circle? Well, we've been in situations
- 1:06before, Mr. Mark, where a politician in Britain is looking
- 1:11like it's the end of his presidency.
- 1:13A presidency might as well be end of his prime ministership
- 1:17sooner than than you would have thought.
- 1:20We've been in fact in this position several times just in
- 1:23the past few years. And each time it seems like,
- 1:28well, there's a way out of this. You can simply do X whatever it
- 1:32might be. But no knowing that
- 1:35constitutionally, as in their constitution, not the
- 1:38constitution of the Britain, they're incapable of doing it.
- 1:41They just so fixed in their ideology and in their way of
- 1:47operating that they can't do it. And Starmer is like an extreme
- 1:51version of that. He has a past in very left wing
- 1:55politics. He's now a suppose what you
- 1:58might call a globalist leftist. His sympathies are not really
- 2:03with Britain, but with some sort of ridiculous and yet firmly
- 2:10held belief in the world order and international law and and
- 2:15this castle thing, when really, you know, that's not true.
- 2:20And we're seeing that's idea falling apart in real time.
- 2:24But he's fixed to that. And also he's just not maybe
- 2:28he's not intelligent. I know he's certainly not very
- 2:29quick on his feet. He doesn't read the room.
- 2:32He has a way of operating. He looks very boring.
- 2:35And I, I think that's possibly Mr. Maher because because he is,
- 2:40he's he has a certain way of operating.
- 2:43I mean, I don't think he's so obviously boring as the previous
- 2:47Prime Minister, John Major, but I think in terms of his actual
- 2:52ability to change, he's more insufferably boring.
- 2:56He won't be able to change. So in answer to your question,
- 2:58no, I see there's nothing that he there's, there are things
- 3:02that could be done, but there's nothing that he can do.
- 3:06Well, as we've seen, he has faced plenty of leadership
- 3:10crisis situations and questions at Prime Minister's Question
- 3:14Time over not just the state of the nation, but also his
- 3:19leadership. Now, I think that probably we
- 3:21should come down to what is it that's got him to this place?
- 3:25Well, we know that his judgement, it was his call to
- 3:28ultimately appoint former Lord Mandelson.
- 3:32We now know that Lord Mandelson has resigned his position from
- 3:37the House of Lords. But at the end of the day, many
- 3:39people have questioned how on earth that decision could ever
- 3:41have been made, knowing that, of course, Lord Mandelson did have,
- 3:46at the time, some relationships with obviously Jeffrey Epstein.
- 3:51More and more revelations have started to come out to prove
- 3:54those points. So how on earth could Keir
- 3:55Starmer make that mistake? Now you could sort of, dare I
- 3:59say, as bad as that is, say well maybe that was 1 aberration.
- 4:04But then you have to look at the other things that are on the the
- 4:06nation's plate. We've got certainly the problems
- 4:10with the economy now as we already know that there have
- 4:14been some revelations of what really is the true state of the
- 4:17nation's debt. So that's one issue.
- 4:19One of the things that Labour did say that it was going to do
- 4:23was address the black hole. This was what they perceived at
- 4:27the time as a 22 billion black hole narrative from the
- 4:30Conservatives. Well, believe me, that black
- 4:34hole has got extremely large. It's become an almost infinite
- 4:37universe. So that's a concern in itself on
- 4:40the economy front. So the economy has got worse.
- 4:43Then we come on to the state of education, the state of the
- 4:46health service. We then look at some of the
- 4:48foreign policies. Now we know that Sir Keir
- 4:51Starmer went to China. This was something that perhaps
- 4:55was criticized not just by his own Labour Bank benches, but
- 4:59also given criticism from the United States President Donald
- 5:04Trump. So it's all about judgement or
- 5:07politics is all about making the right decisions.
- 5:10But here's the other thing I'm wondering, Mr. Pete, is Sir Keir
- 5:14Starmer in an ironic sort of strength of position, because
- 5:18there isn't anybody better to take over.
- 5:21That's a, That's a. That is a good point, yeah.
- 5:25I mean, there are people within the Labour Party who'd like to
- 5:28take over, but they're either compromised or they just don't
- 5:36have it. They, you've got a bit have at
- 5:38least some sort of recognition factor to be in a position where
- 5:45the Labour MPs and other stakeholders within Labour, when
- 5:49they vote for Labour will think that you can do it.
- 5:52And there really isn't anyone who is neither compromised or
- 5:57just not known or just doesn't have the ability.
- 6:00So well, you could say Starwood didn't have the ability, but he
- 6:04at least had the appearance before he became leader of
- 6:07having some level of competence. I don't know, Mr. Malpass, you
- 6:12can correct me on this, but I don't think there's anyone like
- 6:15that. So I think you're, I think
- 6:17you're right to suggest that that strengthens his position.
- 6:20However it's in such, it's in such a, a, a poor position.
- 6:26It's, it may be that he has to actually resign now.
- 6:30Kemi Balanol, the leader of the Opposition has said that
- 6:36Kierstamel, we need to be dragged kicking and screaming
- 6:39from #10 and ask for help for Labour MPs.
- 6:43She said this in the House of Parliament.
- 6:45She said she asked for their help in bringing him down.
- 6:49You know, they she wants to put forward a vote of no confidence.
- 6:53Now that would mean that if enough even bottom of bring
- 6:58forward a vote of no confidence, the likelihood would be that he
- 7:03would resign. But yeah, the kicking and
- 7:07screaming is persuade that. So yeah, with no one likely to
- 7:11challenge him, at least not in the in the near term, in the
- 7:15short term and no one and him not likely to resign, perhaps he
- 7:19will sort of struggle on as a lame duck Prime Minister not
- 7:25having able to do it much despite his huge majority
- 7:29because the Labour MPs just don't want to support him.
- 7:33It's looking to be very looking to get worse and worse for Keir
- 7:37Starmer. I think eventually he'll be
- 7:39forced out. But one thing I, I think we can
- 7:41be pretty sure of, we're not going to get a general election
- 7:45because that would mean that the they, the they're not signing
- 7:49their own death, but signing their own death warrant for
- 7:51their careers. Because recent polls have shown
- 7:55most of the front bench, the leadership of the Labour Party
- 7:59would lose their seats, would no longer be MPs whether to be a
- 8:02general election. So yeah, it's looking like he's
- 8:05going to get a replacement. Things are bad.
- 8:08There must surely come a point where even someone as averse to
- 8:17integrity as Keir Starmer would resign.
- 8:21Well now here's the thing. Because I've mentioned before,
- 8:24the sharks are swimming around. Now here's some names to conjure
- 8:28with Angela Rayner. Well, that was the this is the
- 8:32compromise candidate I was talking about because of the
- 8:35revelations about a a home and not on on payment of tax.
- 8:42She is compromised in that way, although she is the one person
- 8:46who has the most personality. Well, quite.
- 8:50Now she exactly that. So she perhaps has some
- 8:55skeletons in her closet. Now, here's the other one for
- 8:58you, Ed Miliband. I know that you're inspired.
- 9:02Come on. I know.
- 9:04Well, Ed Miliband. Ed Miliband was Libra, the
- 9:07leader of the Labour Party, and famously had.
- 9:10Yes. Trouble eating a bacon sandwich.
- 9:13I believe it was on on television.
- 9:16He's like, he'd never come across such a proletariat type
- 9:20dish before. And he, yeah, he, he's.
- 9:23Just he is climate loving. Climate change loving.
- 9:28I know climate change enthusiast and you know you you have to say
- 9:33that that of course in itself is a is a very much a controversy
- 9:38over basically moving our energy policy into.
- 9:42Chaos. But here's one candidate that
- 9:45potentially is seen as a safe pair of hands, not really seen
- 9:49that much in the media, but is actually, ironically, doing a
- 9:52reasonable job, and that is a Defence secretary, John Healey.
- 9:57Now, what's interesting here is, is that he may not necessarily
- 10:01be seen as a sparkling personality, but maybe what we
- 10:04now need is a safe pair of hands, somebody who can come in,
- 10:07bring a bit of discipline and actually start to address some
- 10:11of the matters that really Sir Keir Starmer has struggled with.
- 10:14I, I wonder whether, whether you, you know of him, I think he
- 10:17has some good credibility. I think, you know, with an armed
- 10:21force Minister Al Khans as well, maybe as a sort of a supporting
- 10:27body there. But I either way, I do agree
- 10:30that we're sort of scraping the barrel a little bit here.
- 10:34But I, I in my opinion, and this is the thing that we've talked
- 10:37about over recent weeks, it's isn't it interesting that almost
- 10:41every week that goes by Sakir Starmer fails to address some of
- 10:45these issues and seems to be culpable on almost all of them?
- 10:50That's the question which I really question now, how far can
- 10:53he carry on making these? Yes.
- 10:55I think clearly he's another sort of charisma accum, isn't
- 10:58he? But you know, going going back
- 11:00to Starmer, I think, yeah, it, it's, do you know that old
- 11:05phrase? It was used after the Second
- 11:08World War to to describe Eichmann.
- 11:11I think it's when he first first used the banality of evil.
- 11:18You get real evil done when boring weak men are leading and
- 11:23is is the what the phrase means. And that's, that's I think what
- 11:28we're seeing. You highlighted the fact that
- 11:30Keir Starmer failed to address issues his his weak leadership
- 11:35means effectively evil occurring in that it's destroying the
- 11:40country economically, culturally, bring you know, you
- 11:46know about the weakness over the bringing in many migrants who
- 11:51are who are culturally different.
- 11:54The not the kowtowing, as people put it, even though kowtow is, I
- 11:59think, a Japanese term, kowtowing to China.
- 12:02There's another example of weakness.
- 12:04And and then they're not dealing with Mandy, as we call it, Peter
- 12:09Mandelson and those issues with Jeffrey Epstein.
- 12:12You know, weakness, weakness, weakness.
- 12:14But it's still evil. You don't need to be strong to
- 12:18be evil. You can be a boring weak man and
- 12:21still result in having a evil effect on the country.
- 12:24And that's, I think, what's happening.
- 12:26Well, there are a lot of nostrils flaring and there's a
- 12:29sense of blood in the air. So my question to our listeners
- 12:33is it's just Keen Starmer, a dead man walking.